HONG KONG.- Zurich Asia will hold its Hong Kong auction on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 March 2017 at Harbour Plaza North Point Hotel, offering 2,800 lots of philatelic treasures, banknotes and coins. There will be a public preview on 9 and 10 March from 10am to 6pm.

Taking centre stage is a recently discovered 1896 red colour engraved die proof of essay of the Red Revenue stamp mounted on thick paper (Estimate: HK$1,200,000-1,500,000/ US$153,846-192,308, Lot 394, illustrated above). This extremely rare and fabulous piece comes from a recent archive discovery at Waterlow and Sons Ltd. in the United Kingdom. It is believed to be a later modified design after the approval of the adopted design by Sir Robert Hart on 26 March 1896 with the additional eight white dots surrounding the central design. This die proof may be an intermediary stage between the proof signed by Sir Robert Hart and the black die proof numbered “2223”. It is truly a fascinating new discovery for Chinese philately and is expected to arouse tremendous interest among collectors.

Another highlight is a horizontal strip of five 1897 Dowager small figures surcharged 8 cents on 6 candarins brown stamps with gutter margin, all imperforate between variety (Estimate: HK$300,000-350,000/ US$38,462-44,872, Lot 304). Tied by three full strikes of the „CUSTOMS/HANKOW/11.5.97‟ circular date stamp, this is the only recorded strip of five and is a unique and great rarity in Chinese philately.

An exceptional array of Imperial Red Revenue stamps will be offered, including an extremely rare and unique 1897 small figures surcharged 4 cents on 3 candarins, tied most probably by the Foochow dollar chop (Estimate: HK$200,000-250,000/ US$25,641-32,051, Lot 411).

The sale also presents an outstanding selection of sought-after stamps from the Liberated Areas of China and the People‟s Republic of China. The star lot is a complete sheet of 80 stamps from the 1980 Year of the Monkey (“Golden Monkey”) in shiny gold and rich red colour (Estimate: HK$1,150,000-1,250,000/ US$147,436-160,256, Lot 2675).

Also of note are four rare stamps from the 1946 Kiangsu-Anhwei Border Area, with overprinted red character 'Central China Anti-Japanese Currency' (Estimate: HK$140,000-160,000/ US$17,949-20,513, Lot 2055). These unused stamps with no gum as issued, include the 10 cents on Blue Pigeon, 10 cents on Blue Junk, 20 cents on Blue Warship and 40 cents on Blue Airplane, one of the key sets of the East China Area.

Fine stamps from Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, Japan and other countries will also be presented. Among the highlights is an 1885 “2 CENTS” surcharge on 8 cents carmine stamp, position 10, surcharge double variety from Labuan (Estimate: HK$70,000-80,000/ US$8,974-10,256, Lot 1504). Previously in the Walter Bickly collection, this is the only recorded example of this variety.